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Rider crashes through team car's windshield during Stage 7 of Pro Challenge

By Daniel Petty

The Denver Post

Posted:
08/24/2014 07:53:05 PM MDT

Ian Crane, a 24-year-old rider for American team Jamis-Hagens Berman, crashed through the rear window of another team's vehicle while making his way through the caravan around the 19-mile mark of Stage 7 of the USA Pro Challenge.

He is currently in stable condition with non life-threatening injuries, but remains sedated at St. Anthony Hospital's trauma unit in Lakewood.

"It was a pretty violent crash," Ed Beamon, sport director for Jamis-Hagens Berman, said in a hastily called press conference. "He had a lot of facial lacerations and probably some broken bones. Obviously, there was quite a bit of blood loss, mainly from the facial lacerations."

Crane, a native of Seattle who is in his first year as a professional cyclist, had been riding through the caravan to rejoin the main group of riders after a small crash that required him to change bicycles. He crashed through the windshield after several team cars came to an abrupt stop.

"He had been in the caravan a bit longer than normal," Beamon said. "We were hitting a pretty windy section, and as he was coming back in the caravan, there was a stoppage. Either he didn't react to it quick enough or ... I don't exactly know how it happened."

Race officials initially received erroneous information that he had died and considered canceling the race out of respect for Crane and the other riders, Shawn Hunter, the race's CEO, told The Denver Post.

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Heavy crosswinds had been blowing along Route 93, where the race had proceeded after leaving Boulder and was on its way to Golden and up Lookout Mountain. The Colorado State Patrol closed the highway to investigate the incident.

Cyclists almost always need to ride through the caravan of team cars — which hold sports directors, food, water and race mechanics — after stopping, usually for a mechanical failure like a flat tire. Drivers of team cars, many of whom are former cyclists with extensive experience, frequently honk their horns to alert cars ahead of them that riders are moving through the caravan.

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